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Today's Earthy Thursday post supports solutions and inspirations for living. New cultural ideas including "forest bathing" from Japan; eco-art in the woods; saving Monarchs and getting paid for it; salt-water friendly potatoes and a multi-generational organic dairy.

Are you just "done in" with the Thanksgiving-until-Valentine's Day slog of commercial holidays? Maybe one of these ideas -- cultural concepts from outside North American culture -- will inspire you instead.

Howdy Pagan News Beagle fans! Today we are going to concentrate on stories about the actual Element of Water. (I know, revolutionary!) Today we've got atmospheric rivers; melting glaciers; growing sea ice; heavy surf; and a (possible) Saturnian lunar ocean.

This new scientific study focuses on the atmospheric rivers that arise off California (and provide much of the rainfall for the entire West Coast of North America.

In today's Earthy Thursday post, the Pagan News Beagle brings you the Pliny Award (for Best Volcano); Gravity Glue; Amber Lotus tree-planting; tiny house living; tribal climate change adaptations.

Did you know there's an award for best volcanic eruption of the year? (Me, neither.) Well, drum roll, please, the Pliny Award for 2014 goes to ... (follow the link)

They say that once the elements were at war.

The land quaked, and the sea rose up to drown it. Wildfires raged; the winds wreaked havoc.

The people were frightened and sent a delegation of elders to the forest to speak with Him of the Horns.

They found him sitting at the foot of an oak, wearing Grass Snake around his neck. He heard their words, and when they had finished, he took Grass Snake in his hands. Grass Snake began to grow and grow until he was as big as the world. Then he wrapped his long body around the whole world and took the tip of his tail into his mouth.

In today's Earthy Thursday post, the Pagan News Beagle celebrates unearthly Icelandic beauty; carbon sequestration to the rescue?; lesser-known stone circles; the wild foxes of Chukotka; the beauty of mad mushrooms.

The Nordic landscapes of Iceland take our breath away. (Note to self: add Iceland to the Beagle's bucket list!)

In today's Earthy Thursday post, we've got stories about our one-and-only biosphere: opening North Carolina forests to logging?; thirsty forests in California; crowd-funding dark snow res in Greenland;an emerging food economy; pickling for fun and sustainability;  wonderful slot canyons.

In a move that has southern environmentalists up in arms, the US Forest service has proposed opening 70% of the massive Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina to industrial logging.

An unexpected side effect of climate change is fast-growing conifer forests in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. Good news? Not if you are a human (farmer or city dweller) competing for water with the increasingly thirsty trees.

It's Fiery Tuesday at the PaganNewsBeagle, and today we have stories that reflect on the recent elections; the gap between knowledge and opinion; recent court cases involving religious rights; and a new reaction to climate change news.

Overlooked in the recent Republican gains in last week's election is two opposing issues that won big: voters supported raises in the minimum wage and the legalization of marijuana.